CareVisions: Enacting the Feminist Ethics of Care in Empirical Research

Abstract

ABSTRACT CareVisions (2022–2026) is an interdisciplinary researcj project reflecting on care experiences during and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic to re-imagine care relations, practices and policies in Ireland and internationally. Inspired by feminist ethics of care perspectives and Irish traditions of relatedness and living in the community, epitomised in the quote: Is ar scáth a chéile a mhaireann na daoine (We live in each other's shadow and in each other's shelter) (Higgins, M. 2021. Letter from the President of Ireland to the President of the United States of America, 20thJanuary 2021. Accessed 18 January 2022. https://twitter.com/PresidentIRL/status/1352162151817949184?s=20Q2), CareVisions prioritises the creation of deliberative and participative spaces to enable care debates from a wide and diverse range of voices. Thus, the project's essence required examination of and attention to ‘care-full' internal and external working relations. Informed by an advisory group comprised of care practitioners, researchers and activists, CareVisions' ethical statement recognises that adopting this approach requires a focus on ‘a dialogic and narrative form of practice' (Barnes et al. 2015b:238).This paper focuses on the process of conceptualising, operationalising and illustrating a feminist ethics of care from the early stages of the project’s development and in approaching its empirical studies.